Bernhard Baron (5 December 1850 – 1 August 1929) was a tobacco manufacturer and philanthropist.

He was born in Brest-Litovsk in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus), to Jewish parents. He lived in Rostov as a child, and immigrated to the United States at an early age with his father. Following work at a tobacco factory in the United States, and time spent making cigarettes by hand, he invented a cigarette-making machine. From 1890 to 1895 he was managing director of the National Cigarette Tobacco Company of New York, which he had set up with the backing of a group of financiers to challenge the powerful tobacco trusts.

While living in the US he married Rachel Schwartz of Washington, who died in 1920. They had three daughters and one son. His son Louis succeeded him as chairman of Carreras and was created a baronet in 1930.

See also

  • Carreras Tobacco Company
  • Smoking in the United Kingdom
  • List of Jews born in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union

References

Further reading

  • BLACK, GERRY. "Bernhard Baron: tobacco and philanthropy." Jewish Historical Studies 36 (1999): 71-80. online